Bharat Ratna :- for a sportsman

I was reading an article on the above and I was really amused at the comments etc. put up by people on the above issue, That if sportsmen are included then who should the First Bharat ratna go , I was amazed and ASTONISHED and SURPRISED too that the name of Sachin Tendulkar was making the rounds .. Please tell me what’s wrong with the people who think he should be the first one, No doubt that he is a great sportsman… But my question is why he deserves to be the first one when there are other sportsmen who deserve more and have done more for the sports of the nation. We as a nation love to run after media and the limelight, I would like to ask one question what is it that Sachin has supposedly done for the nation. Yes he is ONE of the greatest players of cricket, He is the One who has all the records, No doubts about it…

The books, scores, points speak for him, so very true… If we do look logically all those milestones have come at a higher number of matches that he has played…, I am a great fan of Sachin, I have missed classes-work to see him bat and play, and will continue to do so. I dont have an ounce of question mark on his personal and professional behaviour. He has been at top of his game for so many years , whereas a lot came and went during the time… HE IS DESERVING OF THE BHARAT RATNA .. No doubts about it but I also think he is not deserving of being the First one to get the biggest award that india has to offer when there are Players and other sportsmen who have done much more for the NATION and not just for their own pocket. Sachin has made a name yes, but he has been equally rewarded by the amount of money he has been given and Not asked the question when he did not perform.

A Name that comes to mind is that of Major Dhyan Chand the GOD of hockey, which my dear readers is supposedly the NATIONAL GAME of our nation, we keep running about how this is wrong in our nation that is wrong in our nation, We as citizens have not been able to follow our own national game and we have the time to talk such silly talks.

Whether you are a hockey lover or not, anyone who claims to be a sports lover would, or should, know about Dhyan Chand. He was instrumental in the country winning three successive Olympic Gold medals in hockey – 1928 Amsterdam, 1932 Los Angeles and 1936 Berlin… This man is a Myth – a Legend and has folk stories following his exploits… It is said that

After India played its first match in the 1936 Olympics, Dhyan Chand’s magical stick work drew crowds from other venues to the hockey field. A German newspaper carried a banner headline: ‘The Olympic complex now has a magic show too.’ The next day, there were posters all over Berlin: Visit the hockey stadium to watch the Indian magician Dhyan Chand in action.

Example of the level of patriotism: In 1936 Dhyan Chand won his third consecutive Olympic gold medal in hockey. Hitler walked off the field in a huff – the Indian team had beaten Germany 8-1 and Chand had scored six of the goals. Next day, Hitler offered Chand a position in the German army that was considerably higher than that which he held in India. Chand politely declined.

In Holland, the authorities broke his hockey stick to check if there was a magnet inside

On one occasion, a lady from the audience asked Dhyan Chand to play with her walking stick instead. He scored goals even with them!

Cricket world’s legend Don Bradman and Hockey’s greatest player Dhyan Chand once came face to face at Adelaide in 1935, when the Indian hockey team was in Australia. After watching Dhyan Chand in action, Don Bradman remarked “He scores goals like runs in cricket”

Residents of Vienna, Austria, honoured him by setting up a statue of him with four hands and four sticks, depicting his control and mastery over the ball.

In 1936 itself the Indian contingent which was the hockey team Refused to salute Hitler… the only other team to do that was the Americans. The crowd watched in dismay as the Indians did not offer the Nazi salute and while their gesture went largely unnoticed back home, it created quite a stir in Germany.

He was, simply, ‘The Hockey Wizard’, scoring over 400 goals in his international career. He was just that good. The recent giving out of the Padam shri awards to all sorts of people with doubtful integrity has devalued this award.

Another point that I want to make is that all other sportsmen have some sort of equivalent in there field , Sachin has fellow cricketers who are almost as good the likes of the Rahul dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev … But Dhyan Chand when he played, He was unparalleled, no one came close not just from Indian players but worldwide. Such was his mastery over the Stick. There are so many stories about his exploits on the field all over the world do we think that Sachin’s Exploits are that amazing ?

Sachin has just won ONE world cup in his entire career, whereas Dhyan Chand won Three and he was Instrumental in all the wins, Sachin as we know has not been always that instrumental.

Some of the facts that I have found out in my searches…

In the year 1926 Dhyan Chand was selected for the Indian Hockey team going to visit New Zealand at a tour. During the tour, the Indian team scored 20 goals in a match played at Dannkerke, and Dhyan Chand alone had scored 10 of them. India played 21 matches on the tour, out of which it won 18, lost 1 and drew 2 matches. The team scored a total number of 192 goals and Dhyan Chand alone had scored over 100 of them… At the London Folkestone Festival in 1927, he scored 36 goals out of India’s total 72 goals, in 10 matches played at the event.

In the Los Angeles Olympics 1932, the Indian team led by Lal Shah Bukhari again won the Gold medal. In the tournament, the Indian Hockey team defeated the USA Hockey team by 23-1, which remained a world record until it was broken in the year 2003. Out of these 23 goals, 8 were scored alone by Dhyan Chand. In the event, Dhyan Chand scored 12 goals for India in 2 matches.

In the Berlin Olympics 1936, Indian had successfully treaded their path to the finals crushing Hungary by 4-0, USA by 7-0, Japan 9-0 , France 10 -0 without conceding a single goal in the tournament. and was going to combat Germany in the Finals. In the Final match, the Indian squad could score only 1 goal till the interval. Dhyan Chand removed his shoes in the interval and played the match barefooted onwards. The Indian team won the match and the Gold medal by 8-1.

In 1932, India scored 338 goals in 37 matches, of which 133 were from the Dhyan Chand’s magic wand.

A famous story goes thus:

He put through a ball to K D Singh Babu, then turned his back and walked away. When Babu asked for an explanation, he was told, “If you could not get a goal from that you did not deserve to be on my team.”

Once, In a game many of the shots hits by him were missing the goal post, Dhyan Chand argued with the match referee regarding the measurement of the goal post, and amazingly, it was found to not be in conformation with the official width of a goal post.

Dhyan Chand had complete mastery over the game, His placements were perfect, and many a times he did not even have to look where the player was the Ball reached the player, when he was expected to shoot, he would pass and when he passed, he expected the player not to miss.

After his retirment he would still embarrass goalkeepers during practise games by dropping the ball and driving it into the corner of the net on the half volley ten times in a row.

Two things that will encapsulate his greatness.

Once an invitation to play in East Africa stipulated a condition: No Dhyan Chand, no invitation

A statue of the whiz in a Vienna sports club, it is said, shows a man with four arms and four sticks.

It is a pity that we as a nation never give due recognition to anyone who deserves Especially when they are alive, The same happened with this great man too. India’s highest award for lifetime achievement in sports is the Dhyan Chand Award which has been awarded annually from 2002 to sporting figures who not only contribute through their performance but also contribute to the sport after their retirement. Yet we are debating over the fact that who should be the first sportsman to get the most prestigious award.. WELL WHO ELSE ?

Oh my, that was a great article. I didn’t know so much about Dyan Chand – I knew only about that Munich Olympics thing, which they won but never knew it was because him.

I think the award could also go to Abhinav Bindra for the first Olympic medal in individual events, or Vishwanathan Anand for his total domination in Chess or even Saina Nehwal for her incredible performance in badminton, or even Paes/Bhupathi for their two Grandslam wins in a single year. Sorry, I know only about the contemporary players.

BTW, why is the name of Kapil Dev – The match fixer (and crocodile tears shredder) coming on that list?

Thank you D.I. Yes as i said there are so many sportsmen who the award can go to , but then the cricket frenzy country we are , we dont do justice ot the rest.. as such we have almost forgotten our traditional games .. You are right Paes-Bhupathi have brought so much laural to our country ..
Kapil dev’s name is there cause I am a fan of his , I dont know about the match fixing or anything..

I beleive that the nation that forgets it hero’s can never do well in future.. These are the people who we need to look and do something.

why not recognise the players of the past, that would mean we forget the past too.. WHAt it was and what it is now ….

Rather it should be high time past players are recognised and we apologise for treating them that way.. No doubts about sachin getting the award but there are others who deserve more than him.

Really sad when people who have forgotten there national game but gone for the glamour and dazzle of once a foreign game .. yet we follow the people who wear Khadi.. its time to change that too go with the jeans and tee shirt wearing leaders 🙂

I never thought I would read such a long post about a player here! It is interesting, Bikram! I never knew Dhyan Chand’s greatness until now. I knew that we won the Olympic medals in hockey because of him and the Hitler’s episode!

I would have loved to see his picture, though I had seen in the newspaper sometimes. I might recognise him later, if I see one, along with this post. My view about him has gone sky high! Thank you!

Yes you are right, he did become a coach and all but in those days money was not there and he was not properly honoured .. which is such a shame in our country .. its become a trend now to give laural to one who are already loaded with cash, who dont give a damn a bout the country the ones who are poor and do everything for the nation we hardly recognise them at all there are so many stories …

I don’t know much about the hockey hero,this post had made me realise that i don’t know anything about sports in particular about hockey.Thanks bikram for sharing this.

I am against sachin getting bharat ratna.They are so many well deserve people who have played for the country and won medals.I don’t say don’t give to sachin,give him but first it should be given to Olympic heroes and others.The first person who comes in my mind in The flying sikh — Milkha Singh.

I had no idea whatsoever about Dhyan Chand. Great article and it was amazing to read all about his achievements. It is very sad that we do not know how to honour the real heroes of the nation. Thank you for writing such a nice post about this player – I am sure this has to be one of the few heart-felt tributes he will ever get, and probably, equal to an award.

I esp. liked the fact how he declined hitler for that post, That was surprising. Could you point out in the pictures who Dhyan Chand is, among them players, Bikram?

Oh wow. I never knew that Dhyan Chand was that phenomenal. Thank you, it’s truly a tribute to the great man.

And sadly, since we are nation of cricket-crazies, we will continue to idolize cricketers, worthy or otherwise, beyond words can describe while other deserving sports and sportspeople will be relegated to the edges of the limelight hopping in and out of oblivion.

its glamour age, we want to see glittering things only, i am not taking away any credit from Sachin, as you said he is great in his field and i do accept this… but when we compare them then i feel Dhyan Chand is much ahead to Sachin..and there are many more unsung heroes in Indian Sport.

its sad to see that some one has commented here Dhyan Chand as “lesser known hero”…..
moreover Bikram…when our present generation can’t properly sing the national anthem how do you expect them to know about someone like Dhayan Chand…i am not sure but some of them may not be knowing that Hockey is our national game…and its unfortunate 😦

dhyan chand …how can we forget…You know bick we had whole big chapter in hindi prose of this great player..his stories and games he won!
Sachin is a great player ..you know people identify cricket with sachin…I was at a show and some people congratulated me on world cup..this was back in summers..they had all praises for Sachin…(they were not indians).. they said” he is a trump Card, a jewel in the crown and what not in indian cricket…
As fas dhyan chand is concerned ..Sachin is not even closer to him…So I would say …keeping in mind the great players like dhyan chand give them due respect before honouring Sachin tendulkar!
🙂

Yes i remember too that We had a chapter on him in hindi.. 🙂
Yes sachin is a jewel but Trump card I am not sure , he sometimes does not come come true with the potential he has .. if the team is doing well he does well.. whe nthe time comes for him to make a stand , that is what is lacked.

moreover in cricket There are a lot of players nationally and internationally who are at PAR with sachin but when Dhyan chand was playing no one equalled him then and even now its a hard feat to match.. so he should be hte FIRSt one to get it …

I’m surprised that you are surprised that they wanted Sachin to get the Bharat Ratna. I think it is a known fact just how much importance is given to cricketers and bollywood stars. More so than people who actually do something for the nation. I’ll be honest…I hadn’t heard of Dhyan Chand so thanks for sharing that and increasing my knowledge. But then, growing up in India, you only learn about cricket and cricketers. Other sports players are treated like dirt. The Bharat Ratna sounds like an award that should go to someone who has done something for the nation — not just scored runs and kept money in their pocket. I’m sure there are several more deserving people but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did give it to Sachin or Amitabh Bachan.

Yes you are right. This is what makes me mad Cricket in not even our GAME. its a foreign game to india. but then the thrill of the glamour – media .. the gloss all makes a difference. We fail to understand that cricketers are making a lot of money and i doubt they even care for the nation.

I am also of hte beleif that it will go to Sachin for sure because that how we are … but lets see

I think it is a stupid move. I don’t know why people are making a religion of supporting Sachin. I am tired of the sycophancy around him. I would say keep the Bharat Ratna out of their purview altogether. And if given, give it not by hype but merit. Dhyan Chand would be a good start.

people need something to do .. nowadays its cricket or it would be bollywood actors..
Merit what is that … since when has anything happened on merit even for Jobs its hardly merit but how much bribe is given ..

I think people demand for certain things more out of ignorance than any other reason. Until this post, I thought Sachin was the only sportsman deserving. What people get to see is what they believe. Most of the people who would have voted and argued over who should get the first Bharat Ratna, would have been youngsters who may have no clue about Dhyan Chand. But the body that decides on who gets the Bharat Ratna is not ignorant, and I am sure they will make a decision keeping all the deserving people in mind
This post was super informative. and I enjoyed reading it.

what you say is true too. no wonder people forget so very soon and as such as they say everyone wants a part of the raising sun.. no one wants to think of it when its setting down …
Yes the body who decides need to open there eyes and do what is right for once in their life ..

“Sachin… Sachin… Sachin…” I chant… So if you ask me I would say Sachin… It is as simple as that, “If you ask a Mom she will say her son\daughter is the best.” In similar lines I would love Sachin to win that..

I guess the answer is apparent and obvious and you have rightly said, his name is doing the rounds, so why not other names if they also deserve and are special? There must be something that makes this man a cut apart!…

No doubts he is a cut apart.. But there are others too.. and those who forget the heroes never do well in future .. as is the case of HOCKEY once the national game .. and pride of india .. soon cricket will be there too when a new game comes ..

Sachin he is ONE of the best .. but not a magician .. he performs when everyone performs .. People evne forget the likes of Rahul Dravid who again showed who is better in the recent English tour.. Yet nothing for him ..

Awards in India are a governments prerogative…we see below average actors getting the national award.

In times of Dhyan Chand ji sport was not as big as it is now in India. Also cricket is more popular.
I have no issues if Sachin gets it. It is better to give it to a sport personality rather than any other as sportsmen will get enthused.

I’ve heard stories about Maj. Dhyan Chand from my dad! Its sad that we as a nation fail to recognize true genius. I totally agree with you. Maj. Dhyan Chand should be the one getting it first.
Even though he’d be turning in his grave watching the state of Indian Hockey. Its a shame.
Really liked the post 🙂

Well, I can’t comment on who should get this award, Bikram. I don’t have enough information on sports. But this article was an eye opener. I knew that Dhyan Chan was a great player but I had never heard of the incidents which you have shared with us. He is truly a legend 😀

yes, your are right, with due respects to sachin and his records, he has already had his fair share of cake with the various endorsements and prize money. any honour whatsoever should be for any body who has made break through in the field of sport with consistent efforts and who has made it through many hurdles.

BTw good research on hockey wizard dhyanchand, thanks for so much info.

As a nation we are cricket crazy so can you blame it if people think that cricket is the only sport? Unfortunately some great sportspersons lived during the time when there was no TV and so I guess they had no one believe that they were great! Sad!

today’s world is the world of exposure. whosoever catches all the limelight is deemed a hero, no matter how much more talent is out there. very well written n told me abt ur super hockey star as well 🙂

i have no liking for Sachin n neither for criket … n u r right in saying that because Sachin played more games he got the chance to make more records – no wonder !! Even if he’s out on zero – he still is the hero. i have read somewhere that he has sold his gifted “ferrari” – after that incident i have no respect for him … how can someone as well known as him sell a gift !

And off course it’s a pleasure to know about Dhyan Chand … i not a hockey fan so naturally had no idea about him … sad i know !! but it’s very nice of u to share so much information on him – it’s good to know about india legend (esp. sportman).

So true…some of the greats of Indian sports are being forgotten in this madness of commercial cricket…thanks for reminding us of the true heroes often unsung…Sachin is a genius but at the end of the day how many nations play cricket/hockey(any other sport)…Angrez chale gaye, cricket koh bhi football aur tennis key liye bhool gaye but cricket ka bhooth hamare pechay laga gaye… ;D

I meant cricket v/s hockey(any other sport)….suffer from OCD when it comes self typos… ;P and hoping things are limping back to normal in England…here we are still celebrating Anna & people’s victory for now…aage ka lamba safar tey karna bakhi hai (my hindi is a bit rusty due to disuse….don’t mind)

Yes I know .. Things are fine now here. Yeah i am reading about Anna and all in the news all the time .. Lets hope all goes fine .. though me being a cynic always has doubts over politcians I guess i see too many hindi movies …